


closets and leaving things behind

by halfwheeze



Category: My Babysitter's A Vampire
Genre: Adolescence, Childhood, Childhood Friends, Children, Coming Out, Gen, Kid Fic, Trans Character, Trans Ethan Morgan, Trans Male Character, Trans!Ethan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29616387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwheeze/pseuds/halfwheeze
Summary: At any age, it's pretty hard to come out to yourself, let alone anybody else. At eleven years old, Ethan Morgan is coming out to his closest friends. He's trying very, very hard to be brave about it.
Relationships: Ethan Morgan & Benny Weir, Rory Keaner & Ethan Morgan, Rory Keaner & Ethan Morgan & Benny Weir
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	closets and leaving things behind

**Author's Note:**

> More of prompt clearing - another one I got over a year ago!
> 
> Hope this gives somebody some sweet serotonin!

It’s not that hard, right? He keeps telling himself that it’s not that hard, because if he thinks about how hard it is, he might actually die, right here right now, before he even tells Benny and Rory, and that would be so, so embarrassing, right? He’s already invited the boys over, Saturday afternoon when they usually hang out (when they usually have a sleepover even though his mom is starting to look at him sideways a little bit, wondering if he’s starting to get a little too  _ old  _ to have  _ boys  _ spending the night, but he’s eleven, it’s fine), so he’s gotta be  _ alive  _ for them to be here, okay? He’s gotta buck up and be brave about it - like Luke Skywalker! He’s just gotta be brave. 

“Hey! Your mom let us up - you okay? You’re usually downstairs waiting,” Benny says, bursting into the room as if he lives in there too, Rory trailing in behind him. Suddenly, the truth comes out unbidden. 

“I think I’m a boy,” he blurts out, unable to keep it from his best friends any longer. He’s known Benny since he was six, and Benny didn’t care that the kid next door was a girl, but just that there was another kid in the neighborhood, and he’s known Rory since he was seven, and Rory didn’t care that he was a girl, just that he liked Battlestar Galactica too, and these are his boys. He’s never been able to keep a secret from them, and he’s been keeping this from Benny and Rory for almost a year, almost a year he’s known that he wasn’t right, and he’s got his head between his knees before he knows it, his hands in his hair. He’s always been so glad his mom let him keep it short and he’s never known  _ why,  _ not until a few months ago when he was screwing around on the internet and came across the word  _ transgender  _ and everything made so much more and less sense. 

Benny and Rory sit on either side of him, Benny on his right and Rory on his left, and take his hands out of his hair. 

“Okay,” Benny says, slipping his fingers between his best friend’s, “then what do we call you?” he asks, as if this isn’t a major revelation. As if it doesn’t matter at all. As if it’s not a  _ HUGE  _ adjustment. He looks up at Benny. 

“What?” he asks, eyes wide and mouth agape. It’s Rory who answers. 

“Dude, you’ve always been one of us dudes. If you’re really  _ one of the dudes,  _ that’s cool too. The real question is, like. Name, pronouns, have you told your parents yet? That kinda thing. You’re our best friend. If you thought we were gonna be not cool about it… who did you think was gonna show up? The hockey team? Come on, man. This is me and Benny,” Rory says, his hand not in his friend’s, but on his friend’s back, rubbing over his shoulders. He breathes out slowly. 

“Ethan. I, uh. I looked for a while, and I like the name Ethan. I haven’t told my parents yet. The only people I’ve told are, uh. You guys and Grandma. Grandma Weir,” Ethan admits, laughing to himself. Benny tilts his head. 

“You told my grandma before you told me?” he asks, only slightly offended, and mostly just curious. He kinda gets it - it’s easy to tell things to his grandma, easy to admit to everything you’ve ever done wrong or right or neutrally or even slightly to the left of the grey area, but anyway, she’s just easy to talk to. She’s Grandma. 

“And  _ me,”  _ Rory mutters, but he also jostles Ethan a little, smiling, so it’s pretty obvious he’s not that offended. 

“It wasn’t even really on purpose. She said something about you guys, and called you  _ the boys,  _ and said something about  _ us girls  _ sticking together and… I didn’t want to be called one of the girls anymore. It was a month or two ago and she told me she would keep it a secret for me, but she’s been calling me Ethan ever since, and I wanted… I want to be called Ethan. I want people to call me Ethan. I want to  _ be  _ Ethan,” he explains, looking at the floor with his usual gesturing tighter to himself than it usually is. He read on the internet once that it was typically a  _ feminine behavior  _ and he shouldn’t do it as much if he wants to  _ pass,  _ but how much of himself is he willing to give up? Benny wraps an arm around him, a balm over his mind, a mark of normalcy because it’s something that Benny has always done, and something in Ethan settles. He swallows. 

“Then you’re Ethan. That’s kinda how it works, dude. I’m Benny, so I’m Benny. You’re Ethan, so you’re Ethan, okay? Do you wanna tell your parents? You could do it while me and Ror are here so that you have something to do after,” Benny offers, voice bright, like he had just come up with the best idea in the world. Oh god. Right now? Okay, but that would mean he wouldn’t have to do it ever again. Well, he would have to come out at school, but he would never have to come out to someone important again, just knock out his parents and his parents will tell Jane (because she’s  _ four,  _ and Ethan does  _ not  _ know how to explain this to a four year old), and he’ll be Ethan forever. It could just be today and be over. Doubt rolls over him like the tide, and he feels smaller than ever, even with both Rory and Benny’s arms around him. 

“What if they… what if they aren’t as cool about it?” Ethan asks, his voice cracking. Rory squeezes him closer. 

“E-man, we’ll be here the  _ entire _ time. Have we ever let you down?” he asks, jostling him again, which reminds Ethan that they’re all still sitting on the floor, leaning against the foot of Ethan’s bed. He stands up and crawls onto the bed, dragging the boys up with him to sit on it with him. Benny wraps an arm around his shoulders again as soon as they’re resettled. 

“And, if they’re not that cool, we’ll bring out the big guns. I’m sure Grandma can set them straight,” the other boy reminds him, ruffling his hair a little bit. Before today, Ethan had only ever seen him do that to Rory, never him. The validation that shoots through him is unexpected, but so, so nice, warm and sweet and he loves his friends so, so much. He nods conclusively, deciding then that he would do it. 

“Okay. Wait for me?” 

“Always, E-Man.” 

“You got it, buddy.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Ross and Samantha react well, and they and Evelyn plan a Coming Out Party for the next weekend, thank you for coming to my tedtalk. 
> 
> If they had reacted badly, Evelyn would have straight up spelled them into reacting well and that's on Ally Evelyn. 
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed! Slide me simple prompts @ethanmorgcn on tumblr, or if you want something specific, check out my comms link @sapphiccass, also on tumblr.


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